Wisconsin Catch-22

May 14, 1989|By Mark Lawrence Madsen.

GLENDALE HEIGHTS — Few demonstrations are as ridiculous as that going on in northern Wisconsin over American Indian fishing rights. The demonstration has been motivated by jealousy because the Indians have the right to catch 1/25th of the total yearly catch in walleye by spear.

As it turns out, the demonstration is a real Catch-22, because the demonstrators are arguing against a treaty which allowed them to own their own land in Wisconsin in the first place. Unwittingly, the demonstrators are arguing against their own property rights, and at the same time they seem to be opposed to the idea of inheritance.

Some of the demonstrators have probably inherited cottages on the lakes or large farmsteads. The Indians inherited treaty and fishing rights. An attack on these rights is actually an attack on the contractual ownership of private property as well as the idea of inheritance.